President Donald Trump ripped into the Democratic bishop who lectured him and Vice President JD Vance during the National Prayer Service as the reverend admitted to targeting the commander in chief during her prayer.
“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Wednesday.
The Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde — the Episcopal bishop of DC — had called out Trump directly in her sermon and asked he go easy on illegal migrants, refugees and the LGBT community.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” Budde said from the pulpit.
Budde also listed several jobs that illegal migrants have saying they are not criminals before pleading to the president.
“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we will all want strangers in this land.”
Trump – who remained stone-faced during the lecture – called the service boring and uninspiring and said she owed the public an apology.
“She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA,” he said.
“She and her church owe the public an apology!” he added.
Budde stood by her political prayer and said she stared down Trump when she gave it.
“I was looking at the president, because I was speaking to him,” Budde told CNN.
She said she was talking through “everyone” during the one-on-one conversation with Trump and felt she needed to confront the president to stop him from feeling “charged empowered” to do what he’s called to do.
“I wanted to counter, as gently as could, with a reminder of (the illegal migrants) humanity and their place in our wider community,” she added.
